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Newsweek’s Sloppy Take on the Bible

Not entirely surprising, Newsweek has taken Christmas as an opportunity to publish an article on the Bible and Christianity which is both sloppily researched and clearly tendentious.

Newsweek’s Cover for their Bible Title Story

I will here provide a link to the original article, and then links to various Christian scholars’ “takes on the take”, effectively showing where the author of the Newsweek article was either sloppy or willfully biased.

First, Darrel Bock, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, who holds a doctoral degree from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) and as a Humboldt scholar was a guest researcher at the University of Tübingen in Germany in 1995-96.

Next up, Daniel B. Wallace, whose Brock mentions in his first article. Dan is professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary (has taught there for more than 28 years) and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.

Then we have Michael J. Krueger, President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, a M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in California, and a B.S. from The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Finally, here is Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Dr. Mohler holds a MDiv as well as a PhD (in Theology and Philosophy) from Southern Seminary and has done additional study at the St. Meinrad School of Theology as well as research at University of Oxford (England).

While we stand by our story and disagree with some of Dr. Brown’s points, we do not think it is appropriate to publish a reply here.

Then they point out that Dr Brown has invited Kurt Eichenwald to debate the issues further on Dr Brown’s national radio show. But their readers will not get the benefit of finding out where Newsweek disagrees with Dr Brown, or whether they have good arguments for doing so. Cowardly.